Your periodical reminder that all clothing is hand made by humans, usually underpaid!
Polyester doesn't breathe and sheds microplastics when manufactured, worn and washed!
Cotton farming takes immense amounts of water and pesticides!
Viscose can be made from recycled fibres & waste cellulose, but it's a fairly toxic process!
Linen is more ecological to grow but expensive!

"But what do I wear then, Sini?"
The garments you already own, until they fall apart or someone else needs them!
#Sustainability #FastFashion #WorkersRights

More granular data:
There are some garment making processes that can be automated most or all the way through, like knitwear and socks, but most will still be finished, assembled and/or packed by hand. Crochet is always human work.
Wool is pretty good to wear and when certified and from a good source, can be pretty sustainable if you wear it until it stops existing. This can take decades. Yarn can be recycled, mending is great!
There are fabric recycling initiatives, but the best option is to not buy it if you don't need it. Secondhand is more expensive than it used to be, but you can find older, better quality garments than the crap of today!

I do also have a bunch of laundry tips and opinions in me, but unsure if there's an audience for that. 😂​

Laundry tips and opinions which were requested:

Using fabric softener will make cotton feel clammy and greasy, and give it a mildewy smell. Fabric conditioning helps with staticky plastic fibres but isn't necessary for natural fibres! Just wash without. Never put it on towels, it stops their absorption powers. You can use a little bit of vinegar instead of fabric softener, it will have a mild smell when wet, dries odourless.

Line drying is less wear on clothes than dryer but live your life if you have no place to dry them!

Bedding needs to be washed super hot occasionally! Towels, too!

If your shirts smell terrible because you've been sweating into them, soak them in the sink with a cup of vinegar in room temperature water, rinse, wash normally. This kills a lot of mildew and helps break apart organic residue.

Liquid laundry detergent is silly! Just get detergent in powder form, you're spared the plastic bottles and no heavy liquids are ferried around.
Soap nuts are great if you're allergic to everything but soap nuts. They're not even nuts and are compostable!

A lot of the washing instructions are LIES. You can literally boil 100% cotton and it's fine! You'd be amazed how much dry clean only is not! Polyester and cotton will be just dandy in 60 Celsius - the manufacturers play it safe because some dyes fade in hotter temps. Cheaply made clothes may shrink, but if it's stinky, take the risk!

@sinituulia

Soda crystals (aka concentrated baking soda) work magic on stains and help keep appliances clean.

@sinituulia also laundry nets. I had ao much trouble with ribbons, straps, and cords getting tied up in everything or fabric getting roughed up. Not a problem anymore

@sinituulia and clothing needs way less washing then most people think. You do not need to wash your jeans after one wear.

@RaffKarva Baking soda is also great for getting rid of odours. You can even use it inside smelly shoes and for cleaning carpets, just sprinkle liberally, let sit, vacuum away. Granted, some cats will attempt to eat all of it because it tastes salty, but sans cats it's very viable.

@sinituulia I'm kinda mad about it: the company that made a powder detergent that works, and that has no dyes/perfumes, has discontinued it. :(

@esther Yes! I have a mesh cage meant for washing bras which is very nice when there's a lot of ribbons, ties, etc.
If you're washing something with long ties, like an apron, you can just loosely tie them in a simple knot and that will stop them from tangling up with everything else. If you don't pull it very tight, the hot water will permeate and sanitise that tiny bit of fabric just fine.

@1Atalante1 Yes! And if you wear a layer under your nice top layer of clothes, you will need to wash the top layer even less. I have a legion of very threadbare short-sleeve button up shirts for this purpose, and thus barely sweat into my myriad cardigans. Spot cleaning is always an option if something gets visibly dirty, but other than that your sense of smell is a pretty good indicator of when a garment needs to be washed - provided it's not soaked through in the scented laundry detergent perfumes and dulling your nose 😶​

@meso There are so many different qualities of linen, entirely depends on what you pay for. Everything from sack cloth to see-though fine soft as a cloud gauze. I'd also invite you to look up water shortages, drought, famine, farming run-off and toxic algae blooms. It's really not super great for something we can live without if we must.

@sinituulia (linen *will* shrink if you wash it too hot tho!)

@fay Ideally the linen would have been washed hot enough before the garment or other textile was made so the shrinking had happened beforehand, but yeah, it will skrinkle up in the wash no matter what and appear optically smaller even if it has been properly pre-shrunk. Stonewashed and pre-washed are terms you can find in linen fabrics when buying them, and really it's a VERY cut corner if it hasn't been pre-shrunk before it was sewn in a garment you buy...

I sew and wear a huge amount of linen and then spend a good while after each wash ironing it again, and often pretty much boil it in 70C if it seems to need it and it doesn't shrink because I washed it hot before I made it. 😄

@fay (The dyes used on linen will fade much faster than the ones used on cotton though, my nice black shirts turn a dark gray right quick and then stay a dark gray forever after)